Brent W. Brisben (born March 20, 1968) is an American treasure hunter best known for salvaging the shipwrecks of the historic 1715 Treasure Fleet, a Spanish treasure fleet returning from the New World to Spain. During the early morning hours of July 31, 1715, seven days after departing from Havana, Cuba, eleven of the twelve ships of this fleet were lost in a hurricane near present-day Vero Beach, Florida. Because the fleet was carrying silver, it is also known as the 1715 Plate Fleet (plata being the Spanish word for silver plate). Some artifacts and even coins still wash up on Florida beaches from time to time.
Brent Brisben was born and raised in Montgomery, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati. He graduated from Archbishop Moeller High School in 1986 and was a member of Moeller's 1985 state championship football team. [1] After high school, Brisben attended the University of Cincinnati where he studied communications. Brisben worked as a sports producer at WCPO-TV in Cincinnati [2] and later worked for his father's real estate development company.
Brisben and his father William O. Brisben founded 1715 Fleet - Queens Jewels, LLC in 2010. [3] The Brisbens purchased the exclusive salvage rights to the 1715 Treasure Fleet from the heirs of world-famous treasure hunter Mel Fisher. [4] Just 17 days after the purchase, a subcontractor to 1715 - QJ recovered the only bronze swivel gun ever found on the 1715 Fleet. [5] Hidden inside the bronze cannon were 51 gold escudos and 40 silver reales. Within a month of the cannon find, a mother/daughter team of subcontractors of Brisben's company recovered the "Pelican in Piety". The find was valued at $885,000.
In July 2013, Brisben and his crew aboard the M/V Capitana made headlines with the recovery of 51 gold escudos valued at $300,000. [6] Days later on Sept 1, 2013 a family of subcontractors recovered 50 feet of gold chain and 5 gold escudos valued at over $350,000. [7]
On July 28, 2015, Brisben announced that the same family of subcontractors had found over 50 gold coins worth approximately 1 Million Dollars. The centerpiece of the find was an extremely rare coin called a Royal dated 1715. [8] The Royal coin was a perfect specimen of Spanish coinage made specifically for King Phillip V.
On July 30 and 31 of 2015, Brisben and his crew aboard the M/V Capitana made one of the most significant finds in 1715 Fleet History. On the actual 300th Anniversary of the sinking of the 1715 Fleet, they recovered 300 gold coins including 7 Royals. Over the next week of salvage they added 50 more coins including 2 Royals. The story of the recovery of 350 Spanish Escudos and 9 Royals worth 4.5 Million Dollars made headlines worldwide. CBS THIS MORNING broke the story live on August 19, 2015. [9]
Mel Fisher was an American treasure hunter best known for finding the 1622 wreck of the Nuestra Señora de Atocha in Florida waters.
The Louis d'or is any number of French coins first introduced by Louis XIII in 1640. The name derives from the depiction of the portrait of King Louis on one side of the coin; the French royal coat of arms is on the reverse. The coin was replaced by the French franc at the time of the revolution and later the similarly valued Napoléon. The actual value of the coins fluctuated according to monetary and fiscal policy, but in 1726 the value was stabilized.
Nuestra Señora de Atocha was a Spanish treasure galleon and the most widely known vessel of a fleet of ships that sank in a hurricane off the Florida Keys in 1622. At the time of her sinking, Nuestra Señora de Atocha was heavily laden with copper, silver, gold, tobacco, gems, and indigo from Spanish ports at Cartagena and Porto Bello in New Granada and Havana, bound for Spain. The Nuestra Señora de Atocha was named for the Basilica of Nuestra Señora de Atocha in Madrid, Spain. It was a heavily armed Spanish galleon that served as the almirante for the Spanish fleet. It would trail behind the other ships in the flotilla to prevent an attack from the rear.
The Spanish treasure fleet, or West Indies Fleet, was a convoy system of sea routes organized by the Spanish Empire from 1566 to 1790, which linked Spain with its territories in the Americas across the Atlantic. The convoys were general purpose cargo fleets used for transporting a wide variety of items, including agricultural goods, lumber, various metal resources such as silver and gold, gems, pearls, spices, sugar, tobacco, silk, and other exotic goods from the overseas territories of the Spanish Empire to the Spanish mainland. Spanish goods such as oil, wine, textiles, books and tools were transported in the opposite direction.
The doubloon was a two-escudo gold coin worth approximately $4 or 32 reales, and weighing 6.766 grams of 22-karat gold. Doubloons were minted in Spain and the viceroyalties of New Spain, Peru, and New Granada. As the Spanish escudo succeeded the heavier gold excelente as the standard Spanish gold coin, the doubloon therefore succeeded the doble excelente or double-ducat denomination.
Lutine was a frigate which served in both the French Navy and the Royal Navy. She was launched by the French in 1779. The ship passed to British control in 1793 and was taken into service as HMS Lutine. She sank among the West Frisian Islands during a storm in 1799.
Archbishop Moeller High School, known as Moeller, is a private, all-male, college-preparatory high school in the suburbs of Cincinnati, in Hamilton County, Ohio. It is currently one of five all-male Catholic high schools in the Cincinnati area.
The real was a unit of currency in Spain for several centuries after the mid-14th century. It underwent several changes in value relative to other units throughout its lifetime until it was replaced by the peseta in 1868. The most common denomination for the currency was the silver eight-realSpanish dollar or peso which was used throughout Europe, America and Asia during the height of the Spanish Empire.
San Pedro Underwater Archaeological Preserve State Park is a Florida State Park located in 18 feet (5.5 m) of water, approximately 1.25 nautical miles (2.32 km) south of Indian Key. It became the second Florida Underwater Archaeological Preserve when it opened to the public in 1989. The heart of the park is the San Pedro, a submerged shipwreck from a 1733 Spanish flotilla, around which visitors can dive and snorkel. The San Pedro, a 287-ton Dutch-built vessel, and 21 other Spanish ships under the command of Rodrigo de Torres left Havana, Cuba, on Friday, July 13, 1733, bound for Spain. The San Pedro carried a cargo of 16,000 silver Mexican pesos and crates of Chinese porcelain. A hurricane struck the fleet, while entering the Straits of Florida, and sank or swamped most of the fleet. The wrecksite includes an "eighteenth century anchor, replica cannons, ballast stones encrusted with coral, a dedication plaque, and a mooring buoy system." The wreck was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on May 31, 2001.
Treasure hunting is the physical search for treasure. For example, treasure hunters try to find sunken shipwrecks and retrieve artifacts with market value. This industry is generally fueled by the market for antiquities.
The escudo was either of two distinct Spanish currency denominations.
Urca de Lima is a Spanish shipwreck near Fort Pierce, Florida, United States. She was part of the 1715 Treasure Fleet, one of the numerous Spanish treasure fleets sailing between Spain and its colonies in the Americas. The wreck is located north of Fort Pierce Inlet, 200 yards off the shore from Jack Island Park. It became the first Florida Underwater Archaeological Preserve when dedicated in 1987. This was followed on May 31, 2001 with its addition to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
The 1715 Treasure Fleet was actually a combination of two Spanish treasure fleets returning from the New World to Spain, the "Nueva España Fleet", under Captain-General Don Juan Esteban de Ubilla, and the "Tierra Firme Fleet", under Don Antonio de Echeverz y Zubiza. At two in the morning on Wednesday, July 31, 1715, seven days after departing from Havana, Cuba, all eleven ships of the fleet were lost in a hurricane along the east coast of Florida. A 12th ship, the French frigate Le Grifon, had sailed with the fleet. Its captain was unfamiliar with the Florida coastline and elected to stay further out to sea. Le Grifon safely returned to Europe.
The Santa Margarita was a Spanish ship that sank in a hurricane in the Florida Keys about 40 miles (64 km) west of the island of Key West in 1622.
The Black Swan Project is the project name given by Odyssey Marine Exploration for its discovery and recovery of an estimated US$500 million worth of silver and gold coins from the ocean floor. Initially Odyssey kept the origin of the treasure confidential. It was later proved in trial that the recovered cargo was being carried by the Spanish frigate Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, which was sunk by the British Royal Navy off Portugal in 1804.
The Środa Treasure is a hoard of silver and gold coinage, gold jewellery, royal regalia and precious stones found in years 1985–1988 during renovation works in the Silesian town of Środa Śląska, Poland. The discovered artifacts date from the mid 14th century and comprise over 3,000 pieces. Today it is the property of National Museum in Wrocław and has been kept at the Regional Museum in Środa Śląska.
The McLarty Treasure Museum is located at 13180 North A1A on North Hutchinson Island, north of Windsor and Vero Beach, Florida, on the barrier island at the north end of Indian River County. The museum occupies part of the former site of the Survivors' and Salvagers' Camp - 1715 Fleet, and is part of Sebastian Inlet State Park. It houses exhibits on the history of the 1715 Spanish treasure fleet, and it features artifacts, displays, and an observation deck that overlooks the Atlantic Ocean. An A&E Network production, The Queen's Jewels and the 1715 Fleet, is shown, telling of the fleet's attempt to return to Spain when a hurricane struck off the Florida coast 300 years ago.
San Esteban was a Spanish cargo ship that was wrecked in a storm in the Gulf of Mexico on what is now the Padre Island National Seashore in southern Texas on 29 April 1554.
San José was a 64-gun, three-masted galleon of the Spanish Armada de la Guardia de la Carrera de las Indias. It was launched in 1698 and sank in battle off Barú Island, just south of Cartagena, Colombia, in 1708, while laden with gold, silver and emeralds worth about US$17 billion as of 2023.